For the final couple of days, we returned to some of the same general areas we were at the first couple of days. This time it was raining fairly heavily and didn’t let up, so we took this opportunity to actually capture scenes with the pitter patter of the rain hitting the leaves of the trees on it’s way down, the drops dancing on the miniature tide pools and ponds surrounding the river. After a few hours playing around on the riverbank bordering Lucia Falls, we decided to head across that bridge you saw in the second post in this series near Moulton Falls, and we got on the other side of the river, which ended up just being another magical playground of various floras and faunas flanked by a grove of douglas firs.

We noticed that the sun was starting to peek out a bit, just in time for magic hour, and since we had wrapped what we needed here, got back on the road to see if we could find a meadow or somewhere we can play with the sunbeams we were being gifted. We started to run out of usable light just as we were coming up on an idyllic barn on a property off the road. We pulled in, hoping to ask the owners if we can play around for a bit, but couldn’t find anyone. I couldn’t help myself though, and jumped out of the car to play a bit with an oak tree in the middle of the field, but, before I can get anything usable off, a truck was pulling up to us and the proprietor jumped out.

I apologized, explained we were working on a project, he was cordial yet understandably wished we had asked permission. “What would you do if you found me randomly poking around in your backyard?” he asked. Without thinking, I responded with “Well, depends. Are you a photographer?” Before I could feel like too much of an ass, he responded with “sometimes, yes, I am.” Once I saw he had a sense of humor, I responded with “well, then I suppose I’d be OK with it.” He chuckled, gave us his card, and invited us to return anytime (granted we asked first…). Fair enough. Not a bad closing to what has been an incredibly ridiculous adventure.

What we’ve seen and what we’ve done is something that every person alive should be able to experience at some stage in their lives. Travel is always rewarding, especially when you find yourself in places you’ve never dreamed were real, and to think that this is less than a 3 hour flight away from home is beyond me. There is simply nothing like getting away from everything you know, letting go of control, and seeing where the journey decides to take you. In an age where it’s all too easy to get wrapped up in our own worlds and our own heads, this was just another necessary reminder that there is life outside of that, and, well, it’s quite wonderful.

Here are a few of my favorites from the last couple of days of this part of the trip, all of which were taken on the Samsung NX30.